Goal: Remove former colonel of military dictatorship from teaching position at University.

Recently, law students at Universidad Finis Tarrae were shocked when classes started and they discovered that Cristián Labbé, a former colonel of the Pinochet military dictatorship, would be teaching their ‘Evolution of Political Thought in Chile’ class. Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship stretched from 1973 to 1990 and is most known for the torture, disappearance, and murder of political dissenters, students, and workers.

Cristián Labbé worked closely with Pinochet as a bodyguard, intelligence agent, and eventually as colonel and ministry secretary. Labbé was a DINA (National Intelligence Directorate) agent and instructor in Villa Grimaldi, one of the most infamous torture centers of the regime. DINA agents acted as the secret police of the dictatorship and systematically arrested and tortured dissenters and those aligned with labor unions and the previous government. There were approximately 4,500 prisoners that passed through Villa Grimaldi, 18 of whom were executed and 211 who remain as disappeared. Torture methods in Villa Grimaldi included beatings, sexual assault, rape, and the application of electricity to sexual organs and other body parts.

Since Chile’s transition into a democracy, Labbé has worked in various public offices and was even elected as mayor of a wealthy municipality in the capital of Santiago. During his time as mayor, several Chileans protested against Labbé for paying homage to Miguel Krassnoff, one of the dictatorship’s most notorious leaders and torturers who had been charged with human rights abuses and a 120-year prison sentence.

Students at Universidad Finis Tarrae are protesting Labbé’s placement as teacher, believing that a Pinochet-era colonel and former DINA agent has no place teaching a class on the history of political thought in Chile. Support these students in their protest. Demand that Labbé be immediately removed from his position due to his involvement in Pinochet’s oppressive military regime.

PETITION LETTER

Dear Cristian Nazar,

Students at Finis Tarrae were shocked to find Cristián Labbé as their teacher of ‘Evolution of Political Thought in Chile.’ Labbé worked closely with Pinochet as a bodyguard, intelligence agent, colonel, and ministry secretary. As a DINA agent, Labbé was employed at Villa Grimaldi, one of the worst torture centers in Chile.

Your students deserve a professor from a respectable background rather than one so closely aligned with some of the most egregious crimes against humanity in your nation’s history. Moreover, his recent homage towards Miguel Krassnoff clearly displays his lack of consideration towards torture victims and their families and a bias towards the military dictatorship. We ask for the immediate removal of Cristián Labbé as teacher of political history and thought.

Sincerely,

[Your Name Here]

Photo credit: Sentidos Communes

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